by Kent Covington Posted 2/14/19, 11:50 am

WASHINGTON—A federal judge ruled Wednesday that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort intentionally lied to investigators involved in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Manafort misled investigators on at least three matters in violation of a plea deal he made with Mueller’s team, according to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s ruling. In particular, Manafort lied about his communications with another unspecified Department of Justice investigation.

by Kent Covington Posted 2/11/19, 09:58 am

Hundreds of Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced accusations of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, according to a report by two Texas newspapers released Sunday. The six-month investigation by the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle found that since 1998, nearly 400 church leaders were accused of victimizing more than 700 people, including small children.

by Kent Covington Posted 2/08/19, 09:42 am

A divided U.S. Supreme Court stopped Louisiana from enforcing new regulations on abortion centers. The justices voted 5-4 Thursday to block a measure requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberal justices in putting a hold on the law, pending a full review of the case.

Kent Covington | 2/08/19, 09:35 am

Former U.S. Rep. John Dingell, the longest serving congressman in American history, died Thursday at the age of 92. The Michigan Democrat was considered a master of legislative deal-making and a staunch advocate for the U.S. auto industry based in his home state. He was first elected in 1955 to fill the House seat vacated by his late father, John Dingell Sr. Dingell announced in 2014 that he would not run for a 30th term in office. Instead, his wife, Debbie, ran and won the seat. He suffered a heart attack in September, and recently entered hospice care after a cancer diagnosis.

Kent Covington | 2/07/19, 11:01 am

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he expects to announce next week that the United States and its partners have retaken 100 percent of Islamic State (ISIS) territory in Iraq and Syria. “Thanks to the global coalition, including all of you here today and to our other partners, the ISIS caliphate has been decimated,” he said during a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS at the State Department in Washington. The meeting included foreign ministers and senior officials from the 79-member coalition.

Kent Covington | 2/06/19, 11:05 am

Pope Francis on Tuesday for the first time publicly acknowledged that clergy have sexually abused nuns. “There have been priests and bishops who have” committed acts of sexual abuse, the pope said during a news conference aboard the papal plane on his return from the United Arab Emirates. “Should we do something more? Yes. Is there the will? Yes. But it’s a path that we have already begun.”

Kent Covington | 1/30/19, 10:26 am

Top U.S. intelligence officials briefed a Senate committee Tuesday about threats to the country’s security, the biggest of which comes from China. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his agency has open investigations into economic espionage in virtually every one of its 56 field offices. The number of those cases has doubled in recent years, and most of them lead back to China, he said.

Kent Covington | 1/29/19, 11:27 am

The United States on Tuesday gave self-declared interim President Juan Guaidó control of the Venezuelan government’s accounts in U.S.-insured banks, turning up the pressure on embattled President Nicolás Maduro to step down. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and national security adviser John Bolton on Monday announced sanctions against the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela. The sanctions will block Maduro’s access to $7 billion in assets and could lead to $11 billion dollars in lost exports over the next year, Bolton said.

Kent Covington | 1/29/19, 10:40 am

Negotiators for the United States and the Taliban have reached “agreements in principle” for a peace deal that could end 17 years of war in Afghanistan, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said. He announced the draft agreement Monday following six days of talks last week with the Taliban in Qatar. U.S. conditions for a peace deal included Taliban guarantees that Afghan territory would not be used as a “platform for international terrorist groups or individuals.”

Kent Covington | 1/28/19, 11:01 am

The death toll from a massive dam collapse in southeastern Brazil rose to 60 Monday morning, with close to 300 people still missing, according to authorities. Rescue efforts continued into Monday after the search was called off for about 10 hours on Sunday over fears that a second dam might give way. Authorities told an estimated 24,000 people to get to higher ground, but by that afternoon, engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.